"I's uneasy, plum uneasy, Mister Jodie." "Well, to tell you the truth, Ned, I don't hardly know how to advise you. I reckon about the best thing would be to sit tight one more year, try to pay out next fall, then find you another man. I know a Mister Taylor down on the State Line Road. He's looking for a good family with plenty of big boys, like yours. If we have another good year, and you don't owe Mister Ward too much, Mister Taylor might pay you out and move you down to his place." Ned didn't answer. Instead, he eased over closer toward the counter so that he was standing right in front of Papa. "I ain't telled you the worst, Mister Jodie." "Yeah?" "This mornin' Mister Ward show me how he gwine t' start makin' whiskey! Say I gotta help him! Say he gwine t' put in the biggest still you ever seen. I's plain a-feared, Mister Jodie! He say my chillens gwine to help chop and tote the wood!" "He can't—" "He say he shoot me 'tween the eyes iffen I tells hit, Mister Jodie! But Lawd, Mister Jodie, I's got to think 'bout my chiliens. Little Stray, too. He that pitiful one what's not mine. I calls him my chicken coop stray boy." "Chicken coop?" "Yes, suh, Mister Jodie. Years back I finds that chile—one freezin' mornin'—all scrooched up in my chicken house. He near 'bout starved to death and shakin' like a leaf—he can't talk. Me and my wife, we warms him up and feeds him. And we tries to take him back to his mammy. She don't want him. So we keeps him. That's 'fore I comes to Mister Ward's place, and—" "Papa! Look! Yonder comes somebody to buy stuff!" I dropped my duster and ran to the door to get a better look at the man and horse up the road. "He ain't got no coal oil can, Papa. He's got a shotgun!" "Oh, Lawd, Mister Jodie! That's him! That's Mister Ward! He follow me!" "Yeah! Can't see his face from here, but it's him. He's the only red-headed man anywhere around." I grabbed hold of Papa's pants so I could hide behind his legs. "Is he gonna shoot me now, Papa?" "Mister Jodie, don't tell him nothin'! Don't tell that man what I say!" "Bandershanks, hon, you come back here to the back of the store real quick. I want you to do something—play a game for Papa. Come on!" Papa thought I wasn't walking fast enough, so he scooped me up in his arms and ran with me to the back corner. "What we gonna do, Papa?" "We're gonna have a cat and mouse game. It's fun. You scrooch down right here behind this sack of oats and make like you're a little mouse!" "A sure 'nuff mouse?" "Yeah! You be a little bitty one, hiding from a cat! Be still, now. Don't make a noise. A mouse is real quiet when he thinks there's a cat coming. Just a minute, I'll bring you a whole handful of jawbreakers. A store mouse likes to nibble on candy." "Mister Jodie, come look at the man! He gwine t' fall own his hoss. He drunk. That hoss, he know when Mister Ward's done been at the bottle. He walk easy with him. I's done seen him afore. What's I gwine t' do?"